Professor Marcy Karin

Professor Marcy Karin
(202) 274-7321
marcy.karin@udc.edu

Marcy Karin
Jack and Lovell Olender Professor of Law &
Director of the Legislation Clinic

B.A. (summa cum laude), American University; J.D., Stanford Law School; LL.M. (Advocacy) (with honors), Georgetown University Law Center

Marcy Karin is Jack and Lovell Olender Professor of Law and Director of the Legislation Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. Through the clinic, she teaches law students how to be effective, ethical, and reflective legislative lawyers. This is accomplished by seminar instruction and supervising student work on systemic reform projects for non-profit organizations that are working to lift vulnerable populations out of poverty via economic security, workplace protections, and access to other civil rights. In addition to directing the clinic, Professor Karin teaches: Employment Law; Employment Discrimination; Gender / Sexual Orientation Under the Law; Service Learning; and Clinical Pedagogy. She also writes in the areas of employment law, civil justice for the military community, women’s legal history, and clinical pedagogy. She is an active member of the national work-life, gender justice, and military support communities and is regularly invited to speak about the role of thoughtful public policy in these areas.

Prior to joining UDC’s faculty, Professor Karin spent seven years teaching courses on legislation and employment law as a Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Work-Life Law and Policy Clinic at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. The Work-Life Clinic worked on administrative litigation, legislative and regulatory advocacy, and community education efforts on employment law and policy issues for low-income individuals and nonprofit organizations working on their behalf. This work included cases and projects related to unemployment insurance, reasonable accommodations, time off, flexible scheduling, wage theft, discrimination, reentry, and civil justice for military families. Karin also developed an experiential seminar that trained students how to understand text, law, policy, and politics by drafting white papers and comments on workplace flexibility matters. She also enjoyed working with students as the faculty advisor for the Veterans Law Society, Consumer Advocacy Protection Program, and the Family Justice Bus program.

Previously, Karin served as Legislative Counsel for Workplace Flexibility 2010 and as an Adjunct Professor of Law, Teaching Fellow, and Supervising Attorney at Georgetown University Law Center’s Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic. Before Georgetown, she worked as an associate at Arent Fox PLLC on a range of employment, litigation, and government relations matters. She also was a proud member of the firm’s pro bono committee.

In 2019, Karin accepted the Clinical Legal Education Association Award for Excellence in a Public Interest Case or Project on behalf of the clinic’s work to advance menstrual equity policy for BRAWS. In 2018, the UDC Student Bar Association recognized Karin with the Outstanding Clinical Professor Award. In 2012, she received the Visionary Award from Corporate Voices for Working Families. In 2011, she received the Sustained Community Service Award from the Woodside Foundation for working to bridge the access to justice gap for Arizona’s military families. In 2006, she received the Albert E. Arent Pro Bono Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Public Interest for her work with groups who attempt to eradicate domestic violence and her support of D.C. Public High Schools through the Street Law Clinic. In 2003, Professor Karin won the Burton Award for Legal Achievement in Writing for her Stanford Law Review article on executive privilege. Her most recent articles focus on integrating clinical legal education and workplace protections for menstruators, the military community, victims of domestic violence, breastfeeding workers, and workers with disabilities.

Law Review Articles

  • The Ground on Which We All Stand: A Conversation About Menstrual Equity Law and Activism, 26 Mich. J. Gender & L. 341 (2020) (with Bridget J. Crawford, Margaret E. Johnson, Laura Strausfeld, & Emily Gold Waldman).
  • “Other Than Honorable” Discrimination, 66 Case Western Res. L. Rev. 135 (2016).
  • Breastfeeding and a New Type of Employment Law, 63 Cath. L. Rev. 329 (2014) (with Robin Runge).
  • Pleadings Disability After the ADAAA, 31 Hofstra Lab. & Emp. L. J. 1 (2013) (with Kevin Barry & Brian East).
  • Law Clinics and Lobbying Restrictions, 84 U. Colo. L. Rev. 985 (2013) (with Kevin Barry).
  • The Military’s Workplace Flexibility Framework, 3 Am. U. Lab. & Emp. L. F. 153 (2013) (with Katie Onachila).
  • Toward Integrated Law Clinics that Train Social Justice Advocates, 17 Clin. L. Rev. 529 (2011) (with Robin Runge).
  • Time Off For Military Families: an Emerging Case Study in a Time of War…And the Tipping Point for Future Laws Supporting Work-Life Balance?, 33 Rutgers L. Rec. 46 (2009).
  • Changing Federal Statutory Proposals to Address Domestic Violence at Work: Creating a Societal Response by Making Businesses a Part of the Solution, 74 Brook. L. Rev. 1 (2009).
  • Esther Morris and Her Equality State: From Council Bill 70 to Life on the Bench, 46 Am. J. of Legal Hist. 300 (2005).
  • Out of Sight, but Not Out of Mind: How Executive Order 13,233 Expands Executive Privilege While Simultaneously Preventing Access to Presidential Records, 55 Stan. L. Rev. 529 (2002).

Shorter Publications / Posts

  • Disability Rights: Past, Present, and Future: A Roadmap for Disability Rights, 23 UDC L. Rev. __ (2020) (with Lara Bollinger and UDC Law Staff).
  • Rights Under the Uniformed Services Employment Rights and Reemployment Act (USERRA) (with Brian Clauss), chapter 2 in Servicemember and Veterans Rights (forthcoming 2016).
  • The End of Cause-Lawyering and Community Education Clinics?, Legislation Law Prof Blog (Nov. 24, 2014).
  • Returning vets need jobs, help with courts, Ariz. Rep. (Nov. 9, 2011) (with Carissa Hessick). Republished by USA Today (Nov. 9, 2011).
  • Some Flexibility Questions for Members of the National Guard and their Families, Sloan Work and Family Network (June 15, 2011).
  • Supporting Survivors of Sexual Assault with Workplace Flexibility, Sloan Work and Family Network (April 23, 2010) (with Robin Runge).
  • Domestic Violence at Work: Legal and Business Perspectives, A Sloan Work and Family encyclopedia entry (2009) (with Paula Shapiro).
  • Huffington Post blogger page: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marcy-karin/

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